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The Importance of a Limited Daily List

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A key feature of the Calibration Method is building a to-do list for today only. This is important for several reasons:

  1. Focusing solely on today stops procrastination.

    When you have a long list of things you want to get done today, tomorrow, and long into the future, it becomes really easy to let items slide because there’s always the possibility that you’ll get to it tomorrow. By setting out to build a list that contains only the items you plan to get done today, and then committing to completing them to the best of your ability, you effectively put an end to procrastination…for today, if nothing else.

  2. Having a limited list motivates you to complete it all.

    When you have a list of everything you want to accomplish in a day, and are pre-committed to not filling it up with more stuff once those are done, you have a concrete finish line that you can push yourself to reach — and celebrate when you get there!

    I’ll be honest, I’ll still trying to figure out what I’m capable of in a day, so I still don’t often finish my list. But when I do, it feels great!

  3. Exercising control over your day’s list in the short-term keeps you in control of your lists, not the other way around

    By limiting yourself to only doing the tasks you’ve set out to do, you make an advance decision to not worry about any other tasks that might be “out there.” After all, you’ll already prioritized your tasks and decided those other tasks weren’t necessary to do today. They may be necessary tomorrow, but not today. Sticking with that decision puts you in charge, and helps you feel a greater sense of control. Too often, the longer your list gets, the more overwhelmed you get and the less control you feel. Committing to a limited list keeps that overwhelmed feeling in check.

Even if you never implement the Calibration Method in its entirety, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to write out a list of only things you actually believe you can finish today — and make sure they’re worthy of your limited time that day!

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Pairing daily planning and long-term goals

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The Calibration Method has made it a lot easier for me to do the valuable things I want to do, and do them more consistently than with any other productivity plan I’ve attempted.

One key feature of the Calibration Method is to think about your longest-term goals, but get there by a series of day-to-day decisions. You decide what kind of person you want to become in the long run, but only plan the steps that you need to take today to move closer to that target.

Previously, I had a swarm of personal projects I wanted to tackle, and was overwhelmed by the constant, nagging feeling that I wasn’t choosing to do the best thing. When I was writing my novel, I wondered if I should practice computer programming instead. And when I was practicing computer programming, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I should get out my sketchpad and practice drawing. But if I took out my sketchpad, I felt like I really ought to be writing my book. Usually, I’d just shut down and play a mindless video game instead, despite the accompanying feeling that I should be doing anything else!

I still have a long list of personal projects I’d like to get done, but thanks to the Calibration Method, they all fit within the long-term context of a lifetime of personal growth, learning, and skill development. From that reference point, some of those projects really aren’t as important today as others are. By taking on the role of the best possible version of me each morning and building the to-do list that the best possible version of me would prepare, I instantly cut through all of that second-guessing and effortlessly prioritize my tasks!

For me, this has been the most important benefit of using the Calibration Method: my to-do list now has so much clarity that I’m emboldened to tackle it each day. My mind is at ease, knowing that I’m working on the most valuable things I can work on today. And tomorrow, I’ll do the same thing all over again — but I won’t have to tackle that until tomorrow.

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Sometimes your perspective is all that needs to change

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I was talking with my wife about the effects I’ve noticed while using the Calibration Method. One thing that stood out to me in particular was how my approach to my to-do list has changed.

Previously, when I would attempt to revitalize my life and finally get things done, I’d prepare a list of all the important things I had to do if I was going to have any hope of improving my life. With my list in hand, that list was the only thing that mattered to me. And I worked really hard to get everything done, no matter what.

But my home life had other plans. With a full-time job, I normally work on my personal projects when I’m at home. But at home, my family has demands I need to meet as well. Help with the baby, play with the kids, do whatever seemingly random thing pops up on the “honey-do” list. And it never failed, the days that I finally psyched myself up to crush through my to-do list and change my life for the better were always the days that my wife had some sort of project that I needed to do right now. Always.

Needless to say, it was extremely frustrating. It even got to the point where I would get angry, and eventually I began to feel that my wife and my family were holding me back. Now, that’s a dangerous line of thinking! Eventually, I got to a point where I didn’t even try any more, because I knew I’d just get stopped in my tracks again by yet another diversionary project.

And that’s the beauty of the Calibration Method: with the Calibration Method, I don’t only have a list of things to do for my day, but I also have an image of the kind of person I want to be. And by following the method, it was now crystal clear to me that I want to be a Dad who is there, who plays with my kids and listens to them, and refuses to see them as an interruption. And yes, I even want to be a helpful husband that tackles the things my wife needs me to do, even if they need to be done right now.

So when I came home with a list of things that the best possible version of me needed to do today, and was psyched up to get them done, it could have been frustrating when my wife asked me to babysit our 11-month old. And in my old frame of mind, it would have been. But this time, I knew that spending time with my daughter (and helping out my wife in the process) was just as important as the things on my list. Even though my plans were sidetracked, I was still working on becoming the best possible me, which is the only real priority I have. So I played with my baby girl, and I enjoyed it, because I wasn’t stewing over all the things that I wasn’t getting done during that time.

What’s amazing is that the outcome was no different than any of the other times — I didn’t get everything done on my list that day because I no longer had the time. But I got the most important things done that day that I needed to. And more importantly, this time I realized it.

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Why The Calibration Method?

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When I think about being “better,” I don’t think about being superhuman, or being everything that I’m not, but about being me — only better. I’m talking about the best possible version of me, the kind of person that wakes up in the morning, knows what he wants to do, and gets it done. And not just inconsequential things like taking out the garbage and tidying my office, but significant, important things — the kinds of things that can change the world!

It’s intimidating at times to realize that I can be so much more, partly because I’ve fallen so low that it can seem difficult to honestly see myself living up to that standard. But the thing I often forget is that you don’t go from being an amateur to an instant professional overnight, it takes lots of dedicated training and practice. It’s only by putting in the time and effort that you become an expert in your field.

That’s the most important benefit of the Calibration Method: its goal is to help you step up your game from being an average, amateur “you” to become an expert “you,” the best possible version of “you,” through daily training, just as an athlete or a musician improves a little bit each day. I developed the Calibration Method in response to my own ever-growing feeling that I wasn’t living up to my potential and that I could be and do so much more than I currently was. I’ll soon be 40, and so you can also chalk this up to a kind of mid-life crisis. Some guys buy sports cars, I build a personal development system. To each his own.

I’ve been using the system now for about 3 weeks, and I must say I’m quite pleased with the results. My life while using this system has definitely been going through a dramatic shift, though to an outside observer it may seem that nothing has changed. But my biggest success has been in those little moments, where I’m faced with a choice to either keep living the same sub-par life I’ve been living up to now, or make a simple choice in the moment to be better, and begin training to be the best possible version of me.

I mean moments like not taking that second helping at the dinner table, when I would normally take seconds or even thirds. Moments like using a pocket of free time to actually do push-ups, squats and sit-ups, rather than watching TV. Moments like choosing to work on productive work, rather than play video games. These are small victories in and of themselves, but I’m winning more and more of these kinds of victories with each new day, and each victory builds momentum for continuing victories. I’m happier now, I’m getting healthier, I’m more confident, and far more optimistic than I can remember being for quite some time. And that’s after only a few weeks of using this program!

So now, I’m a true believer. I think the Calibration Method is the perfect tool for anybody that finds themselves in a rut and needs a way out, especially when they begin to fear there may not be a way out! I’ll be using this site to make the Calibration Method available to you, and to share with you what I learn as I continue to implement it, like tips and tricks that can help you speed along even more quickly in shaping yourself to become the best possible version of you.

money

More Income Doesn’t Always Build More Wealth

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When it comes to your financial health, income is the least important factor. There are millionaires who are miserably in debt!

The Hope of More Money
Assuming I’m normal and that you’re normal, I suspect that you (as I once did) assume that the best solution to money problems is more money. That is, if you find yourself struggling to make ends meet, then earning an extra thousand dollars would make all the difference in the world. Sometimes what can help us get through the day is the hope that a life of ease and pleasure is only one lottery ticket, rich uncle or lawsuit victory away.

A Parade Of Poor Decisions
I spent a year and a half as a consumer credit counselor, and during that time I discovered something that I had never fully appreciated before: your financial health isn’t even remotely related to your income! I met with over 1,000 families, but learned after only three days on the job that there is no “type” of person who has insurmountable credit card debt, especially not in terms of income. Some earned less than I did and were doing quite well — their biggest problem was trying to figure out how to tighten their budget to put even more savings aside. Such clients, at any income level, were rare indeed.

I also met several people that earned many multiples of my own income — one client’s annual “bonus” was actually more than my annual salary! But all of that money didn’t solve his money problems. It’s a logical impossibility — financial health is built by wise spending, not by extraordinary income.

Working The Other Half Of The Equation
Unfortunately, people get so hung up on the income side of the equation that they begin to feel helpless and hopeless. After all, how much influence do most people really have over their income over the coming week?

But you have far more control over your financial health than you might think.

Financial health is really just a matter of continuing to build savings over time. If you have more money in savings at the end of the month than you had at the beginning of the month, you just got richer. It really is that simple. You just have to look at the other half of the equation.

When you focus on increasing your income, your control over your financial health begins sometime in the future. Your have to wait until you get that raise, get a new job or become famous. But when you focus on your spending, you have immediate control over your financial health beginning today.

Watch Your Spending To See More Savings
The best way to reduce your spending is to start tracking it. When people actually sit down and see how much they are spending, they are horrified. I once bought a couple bottles of pop every day on my way to work. But when I eventually sat down to analyze my spending and saw that I was spending over $40 a month on pop, I don’t need to tell you that I began to improve my financial health right then and there.

When you analyze your spending with the understanding that every dollar you don’t spend is making you richer, you naturally begin to make wise financial decisions. So, are you going to end this month richer or poorer?

card game, game, poker

Poker: It’s Not About The Money

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The more I play it, the more I become convinced that Poker is the finest card game on the table. It has an unfortunate stigma because of its ties with gambling (which can be devastating when abused), but that stigma us undeserved. Poker is a remarkable game that perfectly blends both skill and chance, and can be thoroughly enjoyed without even one penny exchanging hands.

It’s Not About Money
I of course cannot ignore that one of the biggest draws of poker is the high-stakes poker that you can watch on TV. Anytime hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars change hands within the span of only a few minutes, you have yourself a pretty exciting spectacle.

While the prospect of winning money through some well-played gaming is certainly enticing, my experience has proven that the game can be very engaging without even one penny changing hands. In fact, I’ve never played poker for money. I prefer it that way. By focusing only on winning the game and not on winning the money, I am able to play my best and learn from my mistakes, while avoiding having to actually pay for my mistakes.

The Mark of a Good Game
I am a game-playing fool. Whether it’s video games, board games, parlor games or mind games, you can talk me into playing anything once. And if it’s a great game, I risk becoming obsessed with it!

So, what makes a game great? I think it is best defined as the perfect mix of simplicity, challenge and luck. Poker scores high on every measure.

Simplicity
Let’s face it. If a game has too many rules, you eventually find yourself spending more time thinking about the rules than about playing the game. Go Fish, for instance, is remarkably easy to explain to somebody (which is why it’s such a popular children’s game). Many collectible card games such as Magic The Gathering or the now defunct Star Wars game produced by Decipher, however, tend to dilute what are initially simple rules with the introduction of new expansion sets that either update the rules or present new exceptions.

The most difficult part of learning to play Poker is understanding the ranks of hands. That process is dealt with simply by providing newcomers with a list of the relative values. Betting is easy enough to understand, too: when it’s your turn, you match the previous bid (if there is one) or increase the bid. It’s not Go Fish or 52-Card Pick-up, but Poker is easily learned in only a few minutes.

Challenge
Learning to play it well, however, is another story. In poker, you learn quickly that even though you understand the rules, there are still volumes of information about the game that you have yet to learn! To play well, you need to develop a number of skills that challenge you to amass the fullest strength of your powers of concentration. Slip up at all and you’ll lose to somebody else that’s paying better attention to details.

It surprises people to learn that poker is very much a game of skill. Things like understanding probability, remembering what cards have been played, discovering the other player’s betting styles and being careful not to keep your own playing style a secret can certainly keep you on your toes!

For me, the allure of poker is that in the end, the actual value of your hand doesn’t matter. If you aren’t playing well, you could win $10 with four aces, and lose $1000 in the next round to somebody that only has a pair of kings!

Luck
But what would poker be without the element of luck? I would argue that luck is that part of the game that keeps people coming back to it. Luck gives a weaker player the hope that he can still win, while at the same time keeping even the most experienced players humbled.

To understand the importance of luck, consider chess. Chess involves no luck whatsoever (unless you count those times when your opponent doesn’t recognize that he can checkmate you in two moves). Assuming that both players know the rules of chess, it becomes only a game of strategy versus strategy. If you are playing a significantly better player, you have no chance of winning. And if you’ve played a significantly better player, you will know what I mean!

With poker, however, it’s quite easy to have a scenario where a clumsy player has been playing recklessly throughout the game. A better player then gets it in his head to teach the careless player a lesson and ropes him into betting more and more until finally he’s “all-in”. But when the cards are turned over, the reckless player takes it all!

The Perfect Mix
So, there you have it. Poker is the perfect card game because it’s a perfect blending of simplicity, challenge and luck. And most importantly, you don’t even need to risk any real money to enjoy the game (you do, however, have to really want to win).

circle of influence, ignorance, jaywalking, knowledge

Jaywalking: So What?

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I have a confession to make. The “Jaywalking” segment on NBC’s The Tonight Show used to really worry me. Watching and listening to the ignorance demonstrated by the people in those segments used to actually create physical pain in me and a very real fear about the future of America.

But now I’m not so concerned.

Unapologetic Ignorance
For those of you who might not be familiar with Jaywalking, the premise is simple: Jay Leno interviews random people on the street, asking them simple questions like “can you name three American presidents?” Invariably, he finds clueless people who, rather than admitting that they can’t name three American presidents, announce with total sincerity “Martin Sheen, Ben Franklin and Winston Churchill.”

What horrified me about Jaywalking was not that the people seemed ignorant, but that they didn’t even have enough sense to be ashamed or embarrassed by that fact.

A Need To Know Basis
I’ve lightened up since then, beginning with asking a very important question: “So what?”

So what if you don’t know who any of America’s presidents were? So what if you don’t know what countries border America? So what if you can’t point to America on the globe?

Frankly, in the scope of all those things that truly matter, those things don’t matter.

In life, there are things you need to know, and there are things you don’t need to know. I was no longer annoyed by what I once saw as unapologetic ignorance, because what shame is there in not knowing something you don’t need to know?

The Circle Of Influence
What, then, qualifies as something you need to know? The answer is simple. By focusing on those things that are within your circle of influence, you discover those things that you absolutely, positively must know (and must know well)! Anything else falls into the category of good to know, nice to know, and may-never-need-too-know.

I was introduced to the circle of influence by Stephen Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People.” The idea is that there are things you can influence and there are things that you either can’t influence or have very little power to influence. As much as we may want world peace, most of us have very little power to influence that. Peace within our own homes, however, is very much within our circle of influence.

In the same sense, knowing a lot about something you will never experience or use has very little practical value. There is nothing wrong with knowing a little or even a lot about things outside of your circle of influence, but if it comes at the cost of knowledge about things you should be focusing much more attention to, then it becomes a problem.

Truly Shameless Ignorance
As you can see now, my frustration with the ignorance of people featured on Jaywalking was misplaced.

Truly shameless ignorance is to be ignorant of those things that do matter. The things within your circle of influence certainly matter the most, for they belong to that part of your world that suffers the most noticeably as a direct result of your action or inaction.

If I were to conduct an experiment Jaywalking-style, it might go something like this:

(I pull aside some random guy on the street)
Babblermouth: Excuse me, can I ask you a few questions? It’ll be painless, just a little social experiment…
Guy: (Glances at his watch) Sure, but I only have about five minutes.
Babblermouth: Great, I’ll keep it fast. The first question is, do you have any children?
Guy: Yes, a boy and a girl.
Babblermouth: Ok, thanks. Are they in school?
Guy: Yes, our oldest is in 3rd grade, and youngest just started kindergarten this year.
Babblermouth: And what are their favorite subjects in school?
Guy: (Winces, then chuckles uncomfortably) I, uh…I guess I don’t know.
Babblermouth: That’s ok. Are you married?
Guy: I sure am, for fifteen years now.
Babblermouth: Congratulations. Where does your wife want to go for your next vacation?
Guy: Oh, man. (Tries hard to think before finally shrugging his shoulders) I don’t know.
Babblermouth: No problem, one last question. What are the major goals you’re trying to accomplish in the next 5 years?
Guy: (After a long, uncomfortable silence) I’m sorry, I really need to get going or I’ll be late for work.
Babblermouth: Well, thanks for your time…somehow, this wasn’t as funny as when Jay does it!

I don’t know about you, but I find something terribly sad about this kind of ignorance.

Are you shamelessly ignorant when it comes to your circle of influence? Have you neglected it for too long, or taken it for granted? If so, take a moment right now to increase your knowledge where it really matters. Talk to the ones you love, and be amazed at how much there is to learn about them. It will be the best thing you’ve ever done for yourself — and for the people in your circle.

business writing, creative writing, writing skills

Write Less To Write Best

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The days of the classic writers are gone. It is no longer acceptable to use 10 adjectives to describe every noun, as Dickens or Melville once did. (But can you blame them? If I were paid by the word, I’d describe the heck out of everything, too.)

More Is Not Better
The goal of writing is to convey a message. People — especially people on the internet — are becoming increasingly impatient, so you must convey your message quickly and clearly. And that means using as few words as possible and the best words possible.

As an example, look to your own reading habits. How often do you linger on a web page if all you see is a dense block of text? How much introduction do you tolerate before you demand substance? In the modern age of writing, the rule is clear: don’t use 50 words to say what 10 words can.

You can improve your writing immensely by improving your use of description and by eliminating pointless introductory or qualifying phrases.

Fewer (and Better) Details
Your use of detail has a powerful impact on your writing. A writer quickly learns that all words are not equal — some words are worth five to ten words!

For instance, if I were to send you an invitation to “a party at my house”, how much would you know about the party? You’d know only that it exists, right?

But what if I sent you an invitation to “a kegger at my house”? Here I’ve used the same number of words, but I’ve communicated a lot more information! You can now make a lot of assumptions about the party. You would expect, for instance, a raucous party filled with booming music and obnoxious revelry. Around midnight, somebody’s likely to be dancing on the end table, and the police will be escorting the minors out of the house by 3 A.M. (As an aside, you’d also figure I was joking, since I hate such parties and certainly wouldn’t want the responsibility of hosting one.)

In this case, “kegger” is worth several words. By packing specificity into individual words, your writing becomes crisp and interesting without appearing overly descriptive.

Say It Boldly
Timid writing also threatens your message. Too often, needless introductory phrases or qualifiers weaken the message or destroy its clarity.

Consider this sentence: It may surprise you to know it, but I’m able to fly around the room by flapping my arms like a bird.

What purpose does the introductory phrase “It may surprise you to know it” serve? Does it convey any useful information? No! Of course it would surprise you to know it — flying around the room by flapping your arms just isn’t normal. The reader doesn’t have to be told that it’s surprising, because the statement is surprising in and of itself.

Qualifiers are also dangerous to your message. Consider the sentence, “I normally think that most people are usually pretty nice at times.” What’s the message in that sentence? Who could know? A bolder statement would be “I think people are generally nice.” Bolder still would be “Most people are nice.”

If your message is important enough to share with others, it’s important enough to share boldly. After all, who would share your opinion if even you are ashamed of it?

The Proper Time and Place
Before you turn to something you’ve previously written and decimate the word count, remember that there is a proper time and place for details. At all times, you must keep the overall message in mind. Anything you can do to share that message with your reader, do it. But be aware of those things that may get in the way of sharing that message, such as clumsy phrasing or being timid about your message.

In his book, On Writing, Stephen King tells of the best writing advice he received, which I will paraphrase as: trim your first draft by ten percent.

This is fantastic advice. By condensing what you’ve written, you force out that weak writing that dilutes your message’s potency. It also gives you persmission to trust that most of what you’ve written is actually usable.

As you can see, you are not on the hunt for a smaller word count for its own sake — you are on the hunt for a smaller word count for the message’s sake. By using the message as your guide, you ensure that your writing stays interesting and informative, even while concise.

goals, smoking, visualization

The Other Side Of Quitting

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As I said in last week’s article, any real change in our habits requires a change within ourselves. Quitting smoking, then, isn’t about smoking — it’s about ourselves.

The Trouble With Negative Goals
Your ability to visualize the completion of a goal has a powerful effect on your ability to actually succeed at that goal. The theory is that if you can picture something in your mind with great clarity, you are already more than halfway there. It’s like the difference between driving to Seattle with a map in your hand and a red line drawn on the roads you will be using versus simply hopping in the car, driving west and hoping for the best.

But what about negative goals? What about those goals where the aim is to not do something, like not wasting money, not eating too much or not smoking?

Negative goals create a unique problem, because they cannot be visualized. Negation is too abstract to visualize. We are engineered to imagine what is and what can be, not what isn’t and cannot be. We can imagine light, but what about the absence of light? When we imagine the absence of light, are we not really visualizing darkness? When we visualize a person who is not kind, don’t we really just see somebody who is mean?

How then are you to succeed in your goal to quit smoking, if it is impossible to visualize not smoking?

Visualizing Negative Goals
Because of the nature of negative goals, the necessity to change who we are becomes even more evident. In every case, our goal is not actually what we want to give up or end (the negative goal), but is actually what we want to receive or gain as the result of success (a positive goal). We don’t want to lose, we want to gain.

This is a subtle difference, but a profound one. A negative goal, in essence, is merely a reflection of the true goal. When we seek to lose weight (a negative goal), we are actually trying to increase our health or improve our appearance (positive goals). When we seek to avoid slouching in business meetings, we are actually trying to improve our professional image and poise.

The Reflection of “Not Smoking”
So, what about smoking? When we seek to quit smoking, we are actually looking to improve our health. I would not have believed it when I was going through the process, but I now know it is surely true. The easiest way to observe this is this: when you visualize healthy living, smoking (among other things) never enters the picture!

As you can imagine, the whole process becomes easier once the negative goal of quitting smoking transforms into its true goal of creating a healthy lifestyle. You then have an easily visualized picture of what “not smoking” looks like: being healthy.

The Road Ahead
In my previous article, I showed how to crack the psychological desire to smoke. That first method, believe me, is effective in and of itself. However, you will notice that it does not do anything to address the true goal of quitting smoking: the goal to develop healthy habits. Because of this, if you do not seek to develop positive habits to replace your negative one, you will find a dull anxiety gnawing at you…and it feels a lot like cravings for a cigarette!

Most people smoke as a means of combating stress. Now that your healthy lifestyle does not include smoking, what will you do? If you do not make plans to build a healthy alternative into your lifestyle, you will surely fall into an unhealthy one!

Visualizing A Positive Future
How do you set the foundation for a brighter, healthier future? The process is much like the one you used to shatter your desire to smoke. But the emotional process is the exact opposite from before, because you will feel fantastic by the end.

This time, though, you will build your own future. As you are visualizing a happier, healthier you, consider these questions:

  • In what healthy way will you now handle stress?
  • How will your loved ones benefit from your healthy lifestyle?
  • How will your energy levels change, and what activities will you now be able to do?
  • How will taking an interest in your health impact your self-esteem?
  • You’ve given up smoking…what have you gained?

By the time you are done with this exercise, you will feel like you haven’t smoked in ten years, and would never consider doing so again.

Enjoy the new you.

quitting, self improvement, smoking, visualization

The Easy Way To Quit Smoking (Without Patches or Gimmicks)

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Forget patches, hypnotists and insulting public service announcements. Quitting smoking could be easier than you think. It was for me…

Why Most Methods Don’t Work
First of all, let’s not kid ourselves. Quitting smoking is obviously not easy, as evidenced by the sheer number of smokers who have quit smoking, only to return to it within days, months or even years.

But the problem isn’t that the smoking habit is insurmountable. The problem is that many of the methods for quitting smoking are inadequate. Indeed, all unsuccessful methods share one thing in common: they attempt to change the smoking, and not the smoker!

A Hard Fact About The Easy Way
Albert Einstein once said, The problems that exist in the world cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them. The problem of overcoming smoking is no different. You will be a different person after quitting than you were when you were a smoker.

This is perhaps the most difficult part about quitting smoking, and is the reason behind many failed attempts. You see, smoking is not only a habit, it is an identity. When you tell people that you are a smoker, you aren’t merely describing a habit — you’re describing an image! Quitting smoking, then, denies you access to that image. And smoking is an image that, for some people, is too precious to give up.

A Mental Game
Because of this, quitting smoking is very much a mental game, far more than it is a physical one.

Not a physical problem, you might ask? What about cravings, or the agony of withdrawal? Here again, the mind reigns supreme; how can the body ache for what the mind does not crave?

Now, I’m not speaking merely about philosophy or theory. I’m talking about a technique that my own experience proves. I quit cold-turkey, and suffered no withdrawal and no cravings. In fact, I have not even had the slightest interest in smoking ever since.

Such a remarkable turnaround is possible only after the mental game has been won. Once the mental game is won, the physical need to smoke is crushed.

Winning The Mental Game
So, how is the mental game won? It is won through the use of emotive visualization, peering into a dark and hopeless future and seizing the power to change it now.

This method is based on the pleasure/pain principle made popular by Anthony Robbins. The idea is to attach the utmost pain to smoking, and to recognize the pleasure that awaits you in a smoke-free life.

By winning the mental game, withdrawal symptoms simply do not occur. Once you have associated enough pain with the smoking habit, the only time you feel sick is when you think about smoking!

Ultimate Pain
Smokers, contrary to what public service commercials seem to suggest, are not stupid. They know that smoking isn’t healthy. But smokers associate enough pleasure with smoking that, psychologically, it simply isn’t worth quitting. Employing the ultimate pain principle, however, tips those scales dramatically!

The first step is to build a powerful image in your mind of exactly how painful smoking can and will be to you. Don’t skimp on the details, and be sure to be brutally honest. Take the approach of “anything bad that can happen, will happen”.

Here’s an example of what I visualized:

I imagine that I’m looking in a mirror. This isn’t a regular mirror, though. Instead of looking at myself, I am looking at myself 30 years from now. And what I see is ghastly! I am shriveled and frail. I am sitting in a wheelchair and must carry an oxygen tank with me. I can’t speak at a normal volume, for any effort to speak brings about a wicked coughing spasm, which then makes it difficult to breathe — and my regular breathing is labored as it is! I feel an emptyness as I think of the things that I shall never do, like traveling. Not only can I not go to distant lands, but even going to the local grocery store is a herculean effort. I ache with sympathy for the being I see in the mirror, my soul yearns to offer comfort or help. Then, my future self looks at me right in the eye and asks,full of anger — full of hatred — why did you do this to me?

If you do this right, you will never smoke again! I say the process is easy, but emotionally it can actually be quite draining. You are essentially subjecting yourself to a lifetime of pain in a very short period of time. But it is certainly worth it!

As I mentioned earlier, permanently quitting smoking literally changes who you are. In my next article, I will show you how to manage the transition from being a smoker to being a non-smoker.